Khao Sok National Park; March 2006

Our conservation correspondent, Eco Xavier, reports on Ray and Nikki’s recent visit to one of the most beautiful natural areas in the country – one of Thailand’s protected National Parks.

After their ten day retreat in the Buddhist monastery at Suan Mokkh (see Silence is Golden), our travelling duo made their way to Khao Sok National Park, which lies about 70 km south-west of Surat Thani. It is one of the wettest areas in Thailand, because it is nestled in the mountain ridge separating the eastern and western coasts (see Khao Sok website).

Ray and Nikki make their way to Khao Sok aboard one of the local buses, despite warnings about their road worthiness (or lack of!)

Khao Sok National Park is covered by the oldest (160 million years) evergreen rainforest in the world, has huge limestone mountains shooting straight up in the air, deep valleys, breathtaking lakes, exciting caves, and many species of wild animals. The park covers an area of 739 km2.

"We had such a great experience of peace and tranquility in the monastery, being entirely surrounded by nature, that we were not quite ready to return to the hustle, bustle and grime of city living straight away" said Ray. "Besides, we had heard that there were some great nature trails and treks in the park and we really felt in need of some decent exercise".

Nikki is dwarfed by giant Bamboo shoots on one of the treks in the park

"We had been given a tip by one of our new found friends (thanks to Jes in Ko Tao!) about a great place to stay, called Morning Mist" said Nikki. "We headed straight there upon our arrival and were delighted to discover a small, homely guest house containing a fantastic garden full of herbs and flowers, run by a lovely family who made us feel very welcome" added Nikki.

The view from the balcony of Ray and Nikki's room overlooked the rainforest

The bungalows at Morning Mist are raised high off the ground on stilts which enhances the experience of feeling close to nature

Morning Mist provided Ray and Nikki with the perfect environment for them to continue with their daily meditation. "Our balcony provided a peaceful, natural setting for our early morning practice.  It was wonderful to listen to the sounds of the forest as we sat quietly and a great way to start our day" said Nikki.

The rainforest is host to hundreds of wonderful sounds, smells and sights including Nikki's laundry!

The park offers visitors many interesting trails to follow, which vary in difficulty, depending on how adventurous you wish to be.  There are several waterfalls within easy reach of the visitor centre. The furthest away is Ton Gloy, which is about a 7km trek through moderately difficult forest and gorges. " We decided to try Ton Gloy first because we actually got excited about the idea of making a 14km round trip on foot in one day" said Ray. "Because the forest is so old, we were humbled by the sheer enormity of the ancient trees and plants" said Nikki.

Ray stands in front of one of the huge ancient trees in the rainforest on the way to Ton Gloy waterfall

Despite the fact that Ray and Nikki were pretty tired after completing their trip to Ton Gloy, they decided to attempt the steeper and trickier 4km trek to Sip-et-Chan the next day.  It is described in the guidebook as a majestic, 11-tiered waterfall which takes you through extremely dense rainforest.  The book also warns trekkers to watch out for leeches.  Unfortunately, Nikki and Ray did not read the guidebooks before setting off!

Luckily for Ray, the trek the day before had taken it's toll on his energy and he decided to abandon the journey at the halfway point, leaving Nikki to continue, just as heavy rain was starting to fall. "I felt a little nervous going it alone but I thought I would be able to call Ray on the mobile if I got into any difficulty" said Nikki. 

"About 15 minutes after Ray had gone, the rain was getting heavier. I had slipped twice and was beginning to feel more nervous.  After falling the second time, I felt a small sting on my leg and pulled up my trousers to reveal an enlarged leech gorging on my calf!  Rather than panic, past experience of trekking had taught me to first look for other leeches before taking action.  So, I peeled back the tongue of my trekking shoe and saw about 9 or 10 further leeches, all thin and wriggling, trying to get through my sock and attach themselves to my skin.  My first reaction was to pull them off with my hands but they just stuck to my fingers instead of my foot.  That's when I panicked and screamed!"

Nikki quickly calmed down after this as she knew the only way to get rid of the leeches was to deal with them one at a time, using a stick to draw them off her. "I was probably there for about 20 minutes removing them all and making sure there were no further leeches hidden in my shoes or clothing.  Once I knew I was clear of them, I pulled out my mobile phone to call Ray and discovered I was out of signal range.  So, I turned around and hot footed it back to the visitor centre.  So, we never made it to Sip-et-Chan after all and may well have another go at some point in the future" said a greatly relieved Nikki.

After the experience with the leeches, Ray and Nikki decided to leave trekking for a while in favour of some more leisurely pursuits.  "We knew there was a cave nearby that was home to some wild monkeys so we went off to see if we could find it" said Ray.  "When we found the cave, we discovered that the monkeys were not so wild after all. They had obviously got very used to a regular stream of human visitors, all of whom bring food and they really exploit this to their advantage", Ray told me.

Ray stands amongst the "wild" monkeys, who seem completely comfortable with people around

A mother protects her young baby, and allows our travellers a close up photo!

Why is it that people always find the sight of monkey's grooming each other so cute?!

Having spent an afternoon with the monkeys, Ray and Nikki made the 62km journey by motor cycle to Cheow Lan Lake to visit one of Thailand's best kept secrets. This stunning lake of over 160 square kilometres is home to gibbons, langurs, macaques, falcons, eagles, hornbill, and fruit bats and offers some fantastic sport fishing action.

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The lake was formed when the Rhajaprabha dam was built about 20 years ago, to provide water for a hydroelectric power plant. The lake has a depth in some areas of more than 100 meters, and is about 60 km from north to south, containing more than 100 hundred islands.

"We hired our own long tail boat for a couple of hours so we could get on the water and see it for ourselves" said Ray. "It is hard to imagine what life must have been like before the dam was built - there were hundreds of villages and trees totally submerged by its construction.  Even now, you can see the tops of hardwood trees sticking out of the water as it will take many years for the wood to rot.  It is really quite eery" said Ray.

Exploring the vast lake by long tail boat - the islands you can see are really the top of mountains that are submerged under the water!

The scenery at the lake is absolutely stunning

The long tail boatmen make frequent trips around the vast lake and know every nook and cranny!

The strange sight of huge hardwood trees that were partially submerged by the construction of the lake.  They are still growing!

The inlets around the shores of lake are beautiful - formed by the enclosure of huge mountains under water

After visiting Cheow Lan Lake, it was time for our pair to move on and thank their wonderful hosts at Morning Mist guest house. 

"Our hosts were absolutely wonderful" said Nikki. "Staying in the middle of nature means being exposed to all creatures great and small and the idea of this can be quite frightening. One night, we were in bed with the lights off. We could see the stars through the open windows and could hear the wind blowing through the trees.  The sound was accompanied by this strange scratching, clawing noise coming through the paper thin wicker walls of our straw hut. The noise grew louder and louder and we started getting quite scared! We got our torch out and very carefully tried to find the source of the noise. We were amazed and relieved to discover that it was being made by a tiny mouse that had burrowed its way into a little cavity behindthe main light switch - we could actually see it's tail sticking out behind the panel where the switch was mounted.  We told the owners about the noise the following morning and they took the panel down to free the creature.  We then realised that it had gone in there in order to give birth in a safe place - there were three baby mice found with it - but it could not get out again. Nothing was too much trouble for the people there" added a very happy Nikki.

On 17th February, Ray and Nikki left Khao Sok for the journey south to Krabi and the wonderful beaches of Rai Lay. As they had opted for a quick overnight stop at Phuket en route, they decided once again to take their chances and travel by local bus!

Nikki and fellow travellers wait for the local bus to arrive

Nikki boards the bus after one of the pit stops en route to Phuket

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